Featherstone Rovers 30 Widnes Vikings 22 (From Runcorn and Widnes World)

Featherstone Rovers 30 Widnes Vikings 22

12:52pm Thursday 1st July 2010 in

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WIDNES pushed Co-operative Championship leaders Featherstone Rovers all the way at BigFellas Stadium but ultimately came up short.

The 30-22 loss is sure to be a source of frustration to Vikings coach Paul Cullen who saw his side come back from a pointless first half to establish a lead just seven minutes into the second period.

But in the end it was the Vikings inability to sustain pressure on the Rovers line that cost them.

In sweltering conditions, Widnes got off to a lacklustre start.

The home side looked the hungrier outfit and took the lead on six minutes when loose forward Matty Dale forced his way in.

Matters took a turn for the worse for the Vikings just two minutes later when Tommy Saxton and Ian Hardman laid the foundations for Rovers winger Zak Hardaker to cross wide out to make it 10-0.

The remainder of the half saw Widnes enjoy plenty of field position but they couldn't find the right pass to unlock the door.

Rovers too had further chances but failed to convert to leave the score unchanged at half-time.

The Vikings came out in the second half breathing fire.

Early pressure saw Chris Gerrard force his way over for a try converted by Shane Grady to pull it back to 10-6.

And on 47 minutes a superb Lee Doran pass sent centre Matt Gardner away and he stood up Rovers fullback Hardman before planting the ball down close enough to the posts for Grady to again add the extras and give Widnes a 12-10.

That may well have been the point in the match when the Vikings needed to press on but too many of their sets ended insipidly.

Consequently, Featherstone were able to relaunch an offensive on the Widnes line from which Liam Finn forced his way over from close range.

Kyle Briggs converted to make it 16-12 and on 64 minutes Rovers struck again.

Ex-Viking Jon Grayshon was the scorer though he may have been slightly fortunate to be awarded a try after what looked like a clear knock-on in the build up.

A Briggs penalty stretched the lead to 24-12 and it looked over for Widnes at that stage.

Skipper Dave Allen had other ideas and he forced his way over on last tackle with eleven minutes to go with Grady converting.

Just five minutes later winger Shaun Ainscough brought the Vikings to within two points at 24-22 when he forced his way over at the corner flag.

It seemed a grandstand finish was on the cards until Briggs took advantage of some tired defending to jink over from 20 metres to effectively end the argument.

Widnes: Flynn; Ainscough (1t), Varkulis, Gardner (1t), Gaskell; Thackeray, Smith; Gannon, Netherton, Kavanagh, Grady (3g), Allen (1t), Doran. Subs: Kelly, K. Haggerty, Gerrard (1t), Houghton.